Mimbrez Messageshttp://www.mimbrez.net
Mon, 18 Nov 2013 02:30:12 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.4What is “Progress”?http://www.mimbrez.net/?p=63
Sun, 17 Nov 2013 17:47:27 +0000http://www.mimbrez.net/?p=63Why do we seek progress in this world? We presume that growth, growing bigger, expanding, making more money and gaining more power is a good thing. But the energy of this world is limited and we cannot leave it.

The Hubble Space Telescope looked as deep into space as possible, and took a photo known as the “Ultra Deep Field.” The telescope took a photo of over 10,000 galaxies, some of which were a few million years old, and others as much 10 billion years old. The image literally looks back in time approximately 13 billion years, about 400 to 800 million years after the beginning of the universe.

Consider what you are looking at.

It is a picture of a time machine because it literally shows things as they existed billions of years ago. Each object in the photograph does not even exist in the same time, meaning that if one galaxy in the photo is a billion years away and another is two billion light years away, then the photo shows two different galaxies as they existed in two separate times, i.e. a billion years apart.

Other things could be said: It’s beautiful, a long way away, the science of astronomy is amazing, it’s awe inspiring, and many would venture to express spiritual experiences and beliefs.

But consider something different. Let’s start with a hypothetical to illustrate. Imagine that you are from one of the galaxies in that photo. You wake up here on earth, you have some advanced knowledge and ability, but you do not know where you are and you do not have access to the science, technology and resources that you are accustomed to. Then you are shown a photo, this photo, that depicts your galaxy, which is the one that’s two billion light years away.

This is a picture of a prison. You’ve just been shown a photo of billions upon billions of places, including one place in particular, your home, that you cannot go. The chances of going to the places you are looking at are so impossible that you may as well be looking at a painting of a dragon or the Star Trek Enterprise. Imagination is the only way you will ever experience those things.

We are stranded here on earth. Luckily, it’s a great place to be. But if you were stranded on a desert island with a few fruit trees and a pond of fresh water, I would venture that most reasonable people would not cut down the trees to build a bowling lane or siphon off the water to make a fountain. But that is exactly what we are doing to ourselves.

It is estimated that the world population of humans in 10,000 B.C. was about 1 to 10 million. Some have concluded that the world population had bottlenecked at about 1 million between 70,000 B.C. and 10,000 B.C. and rose thereafter due to the development in agriculture from a hunter-gather society. By 1 A.D. there were as many as 150 million humans, and by 1,000 A.D. the population doubled to about 300 million. The Industrial Revolution saw another growth spurt, and by the 1800’s there were as many as 1 billion people in the world.

By 1927 the world population was at 2 billion. Think about that. The world population doubled itself in about a hundred years when it had previously remained at about 1 million, give or take, for thousands of years! That’s nothing. The world population reached 3 billion in 1960, and would pass 6 billion before the year 2000. That means that the world population doubled from 2.5 billion in 1950 to 5 billion in less time than the average human lifespan. The world population is expected to reach 10 billion by 1050. This graph pretty much says it all:

Population Growth

Of course, with such viral population growth comes more houses, more buildings, sprawling cities, infinite products, clothes, gadgets, video games, software, cars, and industrialized food of every sort to satisfy the unending desires of humans. There’s 800 million vehicles on the road and more to come. But there are limits. Consider the following comments from the “internet”:

“Growing populations, falling energy sources and food shortages will create the ‘perfect storm’ by 2030, the UK government chief scientist has warned. He said food reserves are at a fifty-year low but the world will require 50% more energy, food and water by 2030. The world will have to produce 70% more food by 2050 to feed a projected extra 2.3 billion people and as incomes rise, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.”

The so-called “Green Revolution,” the exponential growth of the production of food beginning in the 1970’s, was greatly fueled by petroleum products. Our economy and transportation of food greatly depend on oil, which is a limited resource, at the twilight of its life. “’Peak oil’ is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline.” Some observers have asserted that peak oil has already been reached, and others assert that it will be reached by the year 2020. Our adverse impact on the environment is extensive and getting worse – a growing and complex problem that cannot be fully addressed here.

The last NASA Shuttle mission recently concluded. There is no comparative US space program to replace it. The US Government will be relying on the Russian space program to shuttle astronauts in the foreseeable future. Corporations (like Virgin records for goodness sake!), are supposed to figure out how to shuttle people into space on a regular basis. So, the government wants the same “industrialists” that got us into our current dilemma to figure out how to get us off this prison. The thing is, we don’t currently have the technology to even get a human being to the edge of our own solar system and back alive. The nearest stare is about 4 light years away. That may as well be a billion light years away. At our current rate of growth and consumption, even if we figure out how to travel at the speed of light in the next 200 years, we will not have the resources to do so. If we burn out our own planet, we’re obviously not going to have the energy to explore and expand beyond it.

Is “progress” a good thing? By the time we have the knowledge to go anywhere, we will no longer have the ability to do so. It’s obvious that we’re going nowhere soon.

I am writing to ask that you introduce legislation that would end the programs run by the National Security Agency (NSA), such as PRISM, XKeyscore, and any others like it, end the related activities of the FCIS and Federal law enforcement, and pass legislation that fund government programs that would aggressively protect the private information Americans.

I have been an Oklahoman since birth. I am also a Verizon mobile phone customer. I was alarmed and shocked to learn that the NSA has been operating a secret program, called PRISM, that taps directly into the central servers of U.S. Internet companies, including Verizon, to extract electronic information regarding millions of Americans. It is also shocking to learn that the NSA has the ability to search any American’s activities on-line without a court order. When these programs first came to light, the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper lied to Congress about it, and the President himself initially denied the existence of these programs. Yesterday, we learned that the NSA has violated its own protocols thousands of times, and in today’s news we’ve learned that member of Congress did not notify Congress and Americans, despite a letter from the President urging them to do so.

Such activities and programs of the U.S. government are not democratic. The U.S. Supreme Court has historically given the U.S. Congress, under the so-called “rational basis test,” broad powers to pass laws effecting Americans. The Supreme Court has asserted that the states are protected against the federal power of the central government by the responsibility of elected officials to those that elected them. The idea is that if U.S. voters object to Congress’ view of a power given to the central government, expansive or limited, they will vote congressional and executive representatives out of office. (“The Political-Economy of the Commerce Clause: Economic and Political Effects on the Supreme Court’s Interpretation of the Commerce Clause,” C. Austin Reams, 27 Okla. City U. L. Rev. 347, 408-409.) However, such broad powers given by Congress are not democratic when voters do not know the scope of powers granted to the central government, much less what the central government and secret courts are doing.

For this reason, the NSA’s PRISIM, XKeyscore, and other such programs, are not part of a democratic government, particularly since Americans, like myself, never knew of its existence. Nor was I aware that a secret court was issuing orders that demanded the production of the private information of millions of Americans without serving us with any notice or opportunity to object.

I had the pleasure of meeting Ronald Reagan in 1979 when he came through Oklahoma City campaigning to be President. In the early days of his Administration, spending time with my father around young politicians and rallies, I remember many of the leading issues pushed by the Republican Party, long before “talking points.” Aside from the Cold War, the right to privacy was one of the primary concerns. Republicans worried that a left-leaning Democrat would turn American society into a 1985-Orwellian-type world where the government was able to track everything a person does.

Today, Americans have learned that the central government of the United States literally has the ability to sit at a desk, type some keys into a computer, without a warrant or court review, and learn what any given person has been doing on-line. Although the legislation that purportedly empowered this to happen was passed under a Republican administration, a Democrat President further empowered such programs, with the help of both parties. Where was the Republican Party I once knew?

I have also written to Senator Tom Coburn about these issues. In responded with the same “talking points” that have been making the rounds on Capitol Hill. (See pasted below.) I encourage you to repudiate those talking points and lead us in are more rational direction for the sake of our Democracy. Indeed, Senator Coburn’s response raises more concerns than it answers and overlooks several others.

The talking points indicated that there has been much “inaccurate and incomplete” media “speculation” about two secret NSA programs. (I presume Senator Coburn refers to “PRISM” and “XKeyscore”, although he did not address them by name). However, the talking points do not identify any inaccuracies. Actually, using government and Congressional sources, it has been widely reported that it is unlikely that those programs prevented “dozens” of terrorist attacks, and that any such attacks could have been prevented by intelligence methods other than PRISM and XKeyscore.

The talking points say that the subject provisions of the Patriot Act authorizes the production of Americans’ information regarding “telephone numbers dialed and length of call”. As an attorney who has practiced civil business litigation in the Northern District of Oklahoma, I know that the law requires a subpoena, a showing of relevancy (real need), and notice and opportunity to object by the involved person(s), before their records will be produced by a telephone company. I would venture to say that all Federal Courts (at least those that do not conduct their business in secret) in this country would require those elements. That’s because the identity of the people making or receiving a call is private information that is subject to Constitutional protections of privacy, notice, service and opportunity to object. When one considers that the FBI has recently been secretly obtaining such records (without providing notice or opportunity to object) in order to identify journalists’ protected sources, the identity of telephone numbers dialed is obviously very significant. The U.S. government simply has no business knowing who I’ve called and how long I talked to them without a specific showing of probable cause that particularly relates to me, instead of lumping me in with every person in America and others abroad.

The talking poitns say that “this program does not give the government authority to indiscriminately sift through American citizens’ telephone records.” But the XKeyscore program clearly has that ability (as distinguished from “authority”). And the only “authority” a contractor needs to sift through such records is reportedly provided by his/her own “reasonable suspicion,” without any involvement of a court, executed at a desk by a drop-down box on a screen. Such “controls” do not mean searches made under XKeyscore are not indiscriminate. Moreover, as we’ve recently learned, NSA has overstepped such controls thousands of times, according to recent reports in the NSA. At least two senators, Ron Wyden and Mark Udall, confirm that is just the “tip of the iceberg.”

The public has also learned that the subject NSA has been feeding information to Federal law enforcement agencies, such as the DEA, which secretly used it to investigate Americans domestically. Once an arrest is made, other involved law enforcement reportedly “reconstruct the investigation” to hide the fact that the lead and arrest were actually initiated without probable cause or warrant. Such conduct by the government, and such programs, are plainly contrary to the principals upon which our Country was founded.

Any purported oversight by the Justice Department, the Director of National Intelligence, or the Senate Select Committee is insufficient to allay public concerns. As mentioned, there have been reports that the Justice Department has misused such information in conducting domestic investigations against Americans, including journalists, which has a chilling effect on the right to free speech. James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, flagrantly lied to Congress about the existence of the subject NSA programs, after it was first reported. (The President likewise initially sought to mislead the public before it became clear that the level of evidence reported made it impossible for him to deny.) And many in Congress have complained that the NSA has not been forthcoming during Congressional oversight hearings. President Reagan once said, “Trust but verify.” Voters also have the right of oversight. As I’ve indicated, THERE IS NO VOTER OVERSIGHT OVER THESE PROGRAMS, WHICH THE CONSTITUTION REQUIRES. Without voter oversight, the NSA programs are not constitutional. What other programs will we learn about in the months to come that we’re not being told about now?

It is concerning that a contractor like Booz Allen is involved in these NSA programs. Booz Allen is a notorious “Beltway Bandit,” infamous for overspending taxpayer money. Aside from the fact that a contractor had such wide access to private information, one wonders whether these NSA programs are really needed or whether contractors like Booz Allen are overstating the supposed need for the programs in order to boost their profits. The implication that our constitutional rights are being recklessly impinged by a profit motive is alarming to say the least.

Americans owe much gratitude to Edward Snowden. He threw away a cushy life in order to inform the public that their privacy rights were being trampled with impunity. While the U.S. government hounded him across the globe, the Director of National Intelligence was lying to Congress about these programs, and the President himself was deceiving the public, initially denying the scope of the programs. The fact that Mr. Snowden went to Mr. Putin for help suggests that by its utter disregard for constitutional principles and norms of a free society, of late, these actions of the United States government is more similar to those of regimes like Russia and China. If it weren’t for the actions of Mr. Snowden, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion; the President Obama wouldn’t have called for a ‘review’ of these programs, following the public’s outcry, which should be seen as a vindication of Snowden’s disclosures.

Consider the damage that has been done to democracy throughout the world due to the NSA programs. (The U.S. government created these programs, not Mr. Snowden.) While Egypt fights for its future, its populace and leaders, and other struggling countries in the Middle-East, look to America. They say, ‘See, the U.S. government spies on its people, too.’ They see how Obama promised to reign in programs like PRISM, but then did nothing after being elected, and even sought to deceive Americans about these programs. They question whether democracy works. China and Russia look at us now and laugh. They say we’re doing the same things that we’ve been criticizing them for years. They probably laugh at U.S. leaders who say the NSA programs are justified for the sake of “national security,” for that is the same reason that China and Russia have given for imprisoning their own dissidents; that is the same reason given by “Big Brother” in 1985. “Security” is never a valid reason for trampling constitutional rights; not in a free society like ours.

These issues are bigger than “national security.” The public faith in our democracy is at stake here. Please bring an end to the aforementioned NSA programs (and any others like it), end the related activities of the FCIS and Federal law enforcement, and introduce legislation that fund government programs that would aggressively protect the private information Americans.

Sincerely,

Austin Reams

—

Senator Coburn’s talking points:

August 14, 2013
Mr. Austin Reams
[Address deleted]
Dear Mr. Reams,
Thank you for your email regarding National Security Agency (NSA) programs and Americans’ constitutional rights. It is good to hear from you.
Over the past few weeks, there has been considerable speculation in the press about two distinct but complementary NSA programs after the unauthorized disclosure of classified information by NSA contractor Edward Snowden. I understand why many Americans were outraged upon first hearing about the programs, but much of the information reported has been inaccurate and incomplete. As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, I have provided oversight on these programs for a number of years, and I am confident that neither infringes upon the constitutional rights of American citizens. These programs are vital to our national security and have disrupted multiple potential terrorist plots, including a 2009 al-Qaeda plot to target New York City, dozens of other terrorist plots against our country, and terrorist plots in more than 20 countries around the world.
The first NSA program in question is authorized by Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act and concerns the collection of telephony metadata only, such as telephone numbers dialed and length of calls. It is designed to address a seam between foreign and domestic counterterrorism efforts exposed in the September 11, 2001, attacks on our nation. This program does not give the government authority to indiscriminately sift through American citizens’ telephone records. Rather, the program was specifically developed to allow the federal government to detect communications between terrorists who are operating outside of the United States, and are communicating with potential operatives inside our country. The metadata acquired and stored under this program may be queried only when there is a reasonable suspicion, based on specific and articulated facts that an identifier is associated with a specific foreign terrorist organization. In 2012, less than 300 unique identifiers met this standard and were queried.
Furthermore, this particular program is subject to strict controls and oversight. All queries against the database are documented and audited with only a small number of specifically trained officials having access to the data. Also, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court reviews the program every 90 days, and data not connected to an investigation must be destroyed within five years of the date of its collection.
The second NSA program in question is authorized under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and concerns the targeting of communications of non-U.S. persons located abroad for foreign intelligence purposes, counterterrorism, and counterproliferation. This program does not allow the government to target phone calls or emails of any U.S. citizen, or any other U.S. person. It allows only the targeting of communications of foreigners, and only when a foreigner’s communications have intelligence value.
This program is also subject to strict controls and oversight. Targeting decisions and the government’s use of the acquired information are regularly reviewed by the Department of Justice and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. I, as well as other members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, are provided with semiannual report regarding this program. Furthermore, the FISA Court must renew the program each year upon certification by the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence.
Speculation regarding these vital national security programs has been fueled by incomplete and inaccurate information with little context regarding the purpose of these programs, their value to our national security, and the protections that are in place which preserve our privacy and civil liberties. Furthermore, Edward Snowden, who fled the United States to disclose these programs in nations who are adversarial to our country— China and Russia—has committed an act of treason through his unauthorized disclosure, and has also damaged our intelligence community’s ability to protect our nation against ongoing and future terrorist plots.
In conclusion, as a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the ranking member of the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, my top priority is to protect and defend the Constitution and the rights of American citizens. I will continue to oppose all legislation and government programs that threaten Americans’ freedom and liberty. Moreover, I will continue to ensure that the necessary tools we implement to defend our security are not used in a way that undermines our well-established privacy rights under the Constitution. It is important to remember that the War on Terror is asymmetric: terrorists take advantage of Islam and hold an ideology that glorifies suicide and rationalizes the massacres of civilians, while our two strongest advantages are our technologies and our rule of law. This is why it is so essential that we not only continue to utilize technology, but that we also never compromise our laws as a matter of national security.
Again, thank you for your email and for your input on this important topic. God bless.
Sincerely,
Tom A. Coburn, M.D.
United States Senator
TC: jw

]]>Senator Tom Coburn (OK) Fails to Address NSA Spying Concernshttp://www.mimbrez.net/?p=55
Thu, 15 Aug 2013 17:14:52 +0000http://www.mimbrez.net/?p=55On July 24, 2013, I wrote to Senator Tom Coburn to express my concerns about the National Security Agency’s “PRISM” program. The program “XKeystone” was subsequently disclosed in the media. Unfortunately, Senator Coburn responded with the same “talking points” that have have already been repudiated in public discussions. He did not respond to the most important concern, i.e. that such NSA programs are inherently anti-democratic because they are not subject to oversight by voters. After all, American voters did not even know about the programs until they were disclosed by investigative journalists. The follow is a response to Senator Coburn’s talking points, which are also found below:

+++++++++++++++

Dear Senator Coburn:

Thank you for your response.

I met Ronald Reagan in 1979 when he came through Oklahoma City campaigning to be President. In the early days of his Administration, spending time with my father around young politicians and rallies, I remember many of the leading issues pushed by the Republican Party, long before “talking points.” Aside from the Cold War, the right to privacy was one of the primary concerns. Republicans worried that a left-leaning Democrat would turn American society into a 1985-Orwellian-type world where the government was able to track everything a person does.

Today, Americans have learned that the central government of the United States literally has the ability to sit at a desk, type some keys into a computer, without a warrant or court review, and learn what any given person has been doing on-line. Although the legislation that purportedly empowered this to happen was passed under a Republican administration, a Democrat President further empowered such programs, with the help of both parties. Where was the Republican Party I once knew?

Your response raises more concerns than it answers and overlooks several others.

You indicated that there has been much “inaccurate and incomplete” media “speculation” about two secret NSA programs. (I presume you mean “PRISM” and “XKeyscore”, although you did not address them by name). However, you do not identify any inaccuracies. Actually, using government and Congressional sources, it has been widely reported that it is unlikely that those programs prevented “dozens” of terrorist attacks, and that any such attacks could have been prevented by intelligence methods other than PRISM and XKeyscore.

You say that one of the subject provisions of the Patriot Act authorizes the production of Americans’ information regarding “telephone numbers dialed and length of call”. As an attorney who has practiced civil business litigation in the Northern District of Oklahoma, I know that the law requires a subpoena, a showing of relevancy (real need), and notice and opportunity to object by the involved person(s), before their records will be produced by a telephone company. I would venture to say that all Federal Courts (at least those that do not conduct their business in secret) in this country would require those elements. That’s because the identity of the people making or receiving a call is private information that is subject to Constitutional protections of privacy, notice, service and opportunity to object. When one considers that the FBI has recently been secretly obtaining such records (without providing notice or opportunity to object) in order to identify journalists’ protected sources, the identity of telephone numbers dialed is obviously very significant. The U.S. government simply has no business knowing who I’ve called and how long I talked to them without a specific showing of probable cause that particularly relates to me, instead of lumping me in with every person in America and others abroad.

You say that “this program does not give the government authority to indiscriminately sift through American citizens’ telephone records.” But the XKeyscore program clearly has that ability (as distinguished from “authority”). And the only “authority” a contractor needs to sift through such records is reportedly provided by his/her own “reasonable suspicion,” without any involvement of a court, executed at a desk by a drop-down box on a screen. Such “controls” do not mean searches made under XKeyscore are not indiscriminate.

Since I initially wrote, the public has also learned that the subject NSA has been feeding information to Federal law enforcement agencies, such as the DEA, which secretly used it to investigate Americans domestically. Once an arrest is made, other involved law enforcement and prosecutors reportedly “reconstruct the investigation” to hide the fact that the lead and arrest were actually initiated without probable cause or warrant. Such conduct by the government, and such programs, are plainly contrary to the principals upon which our Country was founded.

Any purported oversight by the Justice Department, the Director of National Intelligence, or the Senate Select Committee is insufficient to allay public concerns. As mentioned, there have been reports that the Justice Department has misused such information in conducting domestic investigations against Americans, including journalists, which has a chilling effect on the right to free speech. James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, flagrantly lied to Congress about the existence of the subject NSA programs, after it was first reported. (The President likewise initially sought to mislead the public before it became clear that the level of evidence reported made it impossible for him to deny.) And many in Congress have complained that the NSA has not been forthcoming during Congressional oversight hearings. President Reagan once said, “Trust but verify.” Voters also have the right of oversight. As I’ve previously indicated, THERE IS NO VOTER OVERSIGHT OVER THESE PROGRAMS, WHICH THE CONSTITUTION REQUIRES. Without voter oversight, the NSA programs are not constitutional. What other programs will we learn about in the months to come that we’re not being told about now?

You have made issues of government overspending and bringing down the national deficit centerpiece issues of your time in the Senate. It is concerning that a contractor like Booz Allen is involved in these NSA programs. Booz Allen is a notorious “Beltway Bandit,” infamous for overspending taxpayer money. Aside from the fact that a contractor had such wide access to private information, one wonders whether these NSA programs are really needed or whether contractors like Booz Allen are overstating the supposed need for the programs in order to boost their profits. The implication that our constitutional rights are being recklessly impinged by a profit motive is alarming to say the least.

Americans owe much gratitude to Edward Snowden. He threw away a cushy life in order to inform the public that their privacy rights were being trampled with impunity. While the U.S. government hounded him across the globe, the Director of National Intelligence was lying to Congress about these programs, and the President himself was deceiving the public, initially denying the scope of the programs. The fact that Mr. Snowden went to Mr. Putin for help suggests that by its utter disregard for constitutional principles and norms of a free society, of late, the United States government has things in common with regimes like Russia and China. If it weren’t for the actions of Mr. Snowden, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion; the President Obama wouldn’t have called for a ‘review’ of these programs, following the public’s outcry, which should be seen as a vindication of Snowden’s disclosures.

Consider the damage that has been done to democracy throughout the world due to the NSA programs. (The U.S. government created these programs, not Mr. Snowden.) While Egypt fights for its future, its populace and leaders, and other struggling countries in the Middle-East, look to America. They say, ‘See, the U.S. government spies on its people, too.’ They see how Obama promised to reign in programs like PRISM, but then did nothing after being elected. They question whether democracy works. China and Russia look at us now and laugh. They say we’re doing the same things that we’ve been criticizing them for years. They probably laugh at U.S. leaders who say the NSA programs are justified for the sake of “national security,” for that is the same reason that China and Russia have given for imprisoning their own dissidents; that is the same reason given by “Big Brother” in 1985. No, “security” is never a valid reason for trampling constitutional rights; not in a free society like ours.

I implore you to reconsider your position. The public faith in our democracy is at stake here. Please bring an end to the aforementioned NSA programs (and any others like it), end the related activities of the FCIS and Federal law enforcement, and pass legislation that fund government programs that would aggressively protect the private information Americans.

Sincerely,

Austin Reams

[Cobern’s Initial response]:

August 14, 2013
Mr. Austin Reams
[Address deleted]
Dear Mr. Reams,
Thank you for your email regarding National Security Agency (NSA) programs and Americans’ constitutional rights. It is good to hear from you.
Over the past few weeks, there has been considerable speculation in the press about two distinct but complementary NSA programs after the unauthorized disclosure of classified information by NSA contractor Edward Snowden. I understand why many Americans were outraged upon first hearing about the programs, but much of the information reported has been inaccurate and incomplete. As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, I have provided oversight on these programs for a number of years, and I am confident that neither infringes upon the constitutional rights of American citizens. These programs are vital to our national security and have disrupted multiple potential terrorist plots, including a 2009 al-Qaeda plot to target New York City, dozens of other terrorist plots against our country, and terrorist plots in more than 20 countries around the world.
The first NSA program in question is authorized by Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act and concerns the collection of telephony metadata only, such as telephone numbers dialed and length of calls. It is designed to address a seam between foreign and domestic counterterrorism efforts exposed in the September 11, 2001, attacks on our nation. This program does not give the government authority to indiscriminately sift through American citizens’ telephone records. Rather, the program was specifically developed to allow the federal government to detect communications between terrorists who are operating outside of the United States, and are communicating with potential operatives inside our country. The metadata acquired and stored under this program may be queried only when there is a reasonable suspicion, based on specific and articulated facts that an identifier is associated with a specific foreign terrorist organization. In 2012, less than 300 unique identifiers met this standard and were queried.
Furthermore, this particular program is subject to strict controls and oversight. All queries against the database are documented and audited with only a small number of specifically trained officials having access to the data. Also, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court reviews the program every 90 days, and data not connected to an investigation must be destroyed within five years of the date of its collection.
The second NSA program in question is authorized under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and concerns the targeting of communications of non-U.S. persons located abroad for foreign intelligence purposes, counterterrorism, and counterproliferation. This program does not allow the government to target phone calls or emails of any U.S. citizen, or any other U.S. person. It allows only the targeting of communications of foreigners, and only when a foreigner’s communications have intelligence value.
This program is also subject to strict controls and oversight. Targeting decisions and the government’s use of the acquired information are regularly reviewed by the Department of Justice and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. I, as well as other members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, are provided with semiannual report regarding this program. Furthermore, the FISA Court must renew the program each year upon certification by the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence.
Speculation regarding these vital national security programs has been fueled by incomplete and inaccurate information with little context regarding the purpose of these programs, their value to our national security, and the protections that are in place which preserve our privacy and civil liberties. Furthermore, Edward Snowden, who fled the United States to disclose these programs in nations who are adversarial to our country— China and Russia—has committed an act of treason through his unauthorized disclosure, and has also damaged our intelligence community’s ability to protect our nation against ongoing and future terrorist plots.
In conclusion, as a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the ranking member of the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, my top priority is to protect and defend the Constitution and the rights of American citizens. I will continue to oppose all legislation and government programs that threaten Americans’ freedom and liberty. Moreover, I will continue to ensure that the necessary tools we implement to defend our security are not used in a way that undermines our well-established privacy rights under the Constitution. It is important to remember that the War on Terror is asymmetric: terrorists take advantage of Islam and hold an ideology that glorifies suicide and rationalizes the massacres of civilians, while our two strongest advantages are our technologies and our rule of law. This is why it is so essential that we not only continue to utilize technology, but that we also never compromise our laws as a matter of national security.
Again, thank you for your email and for your input on this important topic. God bless.
Sincerely,
Tom A. Coburn, M.D.
United States Senator
TC: jw

Copyright – C. Austin Reams – All Rights Reserved. No portion of these materials or ideas may be reproduced by physical or electronic means, nor transmitted or stored electronically, without the author’s permission.

Dick sat in the leather driver’s seat of his SUV Audi, parked in a large circle drive outside the John Marshall Grade School in Muskogee, Oklahoma at 2:15 p.m. He was waiting for his daughter, Nell. She was eight years old. Her third-grade class would not let out until 2:45.
Dick’s grey eyes gazed over his steering wheel, focusing somewhere past the instruments of his dashboard. The radio was tuned to public radio. He blinked when a local female announcer, a young college intern he supposed, broke into the national newscast. He turned up the sound.
The announcer reviewed the weather: confirmed that the local temperature would continue at below freezing. There would be no relief from the ice storm had hit Southeaster Oklahoma the night before. The main highways leading out of town to the west and northwest would remain impassible due to the ice and fallen trees. The local roads in town had been salted and were passable.
The radio voice advised that the Governor had announced another new gun law; if passed by the state legislature, this one would permit teachers to carry approved automatic pistols in schools after completing the necessary training. The draft legislation was inspired by a string of mass shootings on the East and West Coasts over the holidays. The rise in Oklahoma’s murder rate was another excuse. The increased deaths had actually spiked in the impoverished districts of Tulsa and Oklahoma City, not smaller towns like Muskogee.
Murder was on Dick’s mind that day; not the idea of committing murder but the memory of an attempted murder. His ex-wife had tried to kill him.
Dick’s first wife, Jane, who was also Nell’s mother, died of pancreatic cancer when Nell was five. Dick and Jane had been together since High School. She was an American Indian, a full-blooded Cherokee, despite her western name. Dick was six-foot-four inches tall, white and didn’t know anything about his pedigree. Jane was five-foot-ten and wore her thick long black hair down to her Butt since ninth grade, when they met.
Back then, Jane had had a crush on Dick, and as it turned out, Dick secretly pined for her, but was too shy to say anything to her. Jane acted first when she had a friend as Dick if he would “go with her,” an otherwise bland phrase with deep meaning for high school studentry, meaning, Will you be my boyfriend?
Jane’s family was active with their tribe. Her mother, Cindy Tayanita, was a single mom and a member of the local tribe counsel. Jane regularly attended summer camps for Cherokee children, and participated in the annual Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival in Oklahoma City, where Jane won the traditional dance competition wearing a blood-red dress sewn with hundreds of beads and feathers. Her headdress was adorned with Eagle feathers, approved by the U.S.

Government, that had been in the family for decades. Unlike most other women, dancing gown included with a long knife that had a stag bone handle and beaded sheath.
Dick joined the Army after high school; he married Jane after completing basic training. Jane went with Dick when was assigned to Germany for his first two-year assignment. He extended his commitment for another two years, and in the last year of which he was assigned by Muskogee by request. It was then that they first tried to get pregnant and it was the beginning of a string of miscarriages.
Dick left the Army after another year and they were still not pregnant. After many more years of trying, and spending their savings on two attempts at invetro fertilization, Jane gave birth to Nell by cesarian. The day Nell was born, they agreed Nell would be their first and last, which was truer than they knew. The day after giving birth to Nell, before being released from the hospital, the doctor informed them that the doctor observed a growth in Jane abdomen during Nell’s birth. A biopsy confirmed that it was malignant cancer, and several follow-up revealed that it has spread to Jane’s brain and heart. She died weeks after Nell’s birth.
Dick went through a period of depression and nearly lost his job as a civilian contractor at the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant; but he did not turn to alcohol or drugs. Every morning he reminded himself that Nell needed him more than he needed self-pity.
Instead, Dick turned to on-line dating websites a year after Jane’s death. In the beginning, he told himself that he was just looking. But he kept returning to the sites after Nell went to sleep. He started corresponding by email with a couple of Russian women, a young woman from the Philipines, and three Chinese girls, all of them in their early twenties. His fantasies of having sex with younger women was eventually tempered by the obvious immaturity expressed in their letters. He concluded that he could not allow Nell to be raised by young woman nearly half his age.
But he had also become infatuated with Asian women, particularly their dark straight hair. Maybe they reminded him of Jane; nonetheless, there were few single Asians in Southeastern Oklahoma. Dick became more determined to find a Chinese woman closer to his age; he rationalized that someone in her early thirty’s could be acceptable in McAlester and more likely to be compatible with him emotionally.
After researching more about mail-order-bride websites, Dick learned that many of the women were probably former prostitutes. There was also a high rate of divorce for men that had met foreign women on-line; many of the women were simply looking for a U.S. green card, not a stable relationship. After a two-year waiting period, the brides often filed for divorce, or simply moved to another state.
Dick found Mae’s photo on China Shangxi Beauties, a new website focusing on “mature” women with verifiable family backgrounds. According to her profile, Mae was thirty-five, lived alone with her mother, and worked at a Foxconn plant that manufactured one of the iPhones. Her pictures show her as very slender, with long, straight, black hair, and soft features. She had a degree in electrical engineering, which Dick hope inferred that she probably had not also worked in a massage parlor.
After several months of emails and on-line video chats, Dick travelled to China to meet Mae. She and her mother lived in twenty-storied apartment building, the sort of which lined the checkered streets of Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi, like stacked beehives. The apartment had three rooms, including the bathroom. Mae’s mother cooked all their meals, mostly stir fry vegetables with mystery meat and fowl soup, on a hot plate, which stood on a small table next to a metal sink. There was no refrigerator. There was also a small love seat in the living area and a black-and-white television. All of Mae’s emails had been sent from the dating agency across the street from the Foxconn plant.
A chest-high wooden alter stood opposite the kitchen in front of the only window. There were no Buddhas or idols on it, only several old framed family photographs. Mae said the photos showed her mother’s parents and their parents four generations back. A small pot of what appeared to be ash stood in front of each photo; a stick of incense constantly burned in each pot, which made it difficult for Dick to sleep; not that staying at Mae’s apartment was comfortable. Mae slept with her mother on a small cot behind a curtain door in the only bed, just larger than Dick’s bedroom closet back home, while he tried to sleep on two thick blankets on the floor in the living area.
The last night of his first visit, Mae’s mother went to visit with relatives, or so Mae said with a smile. A humble old man, wearing traditional Chinese clothes, knocked on the door that evening. Mae’s mother hurriedly gathered her things and left with the man, winking to Mae as he closed the door.
“That was my grandfather,” said Mae.
“He looks more like you father. Didn’t he pass away?” said Dick, glancing at the alter photograph.
“Not really,” said Mae, as she came up behind him and softly kissed his neck.
Mae and Dick slept together that night, made love several times before midnight, and again before dawn. It was better than Dick could have imagined, or maybe he had just gone without sex too long. When Dick would get up to use the toilet, he left the door cracked and saw Mae light more incense at the family alter. She never let the insence burn out during his entire trip.
Once back home in McAlester, Dick spent most of his time thinking about sex with Mae. His late evenings and early mornings were often spent chatting with Mae on web chats. After three months of restlessness, Dick returned to China with a ring. He bought Mae a two-way ticket to California, so U.S. Immigration would believe she was merely taking a vacation rather than being a fiance; he then purchased a separate ticket for Mae to Will Rogers International Airport in Oklahoma City. That’s were Nell met Mae for the first time.
Mae hugged Dick upon her arrival, and she glared at Nell over his shoulder at Nell, who was nearly eight-years-old at the time. When Mae opened her arms for a hug, Nell slapped her.
Dick and Mae were married within three (3) months. The sex was good, at first. Mae took over the kitchen, but not to cook; rather, she set up a family alter with incense and photographs on the mahogany buffet that had been in Dick’s family since the statehood.
Days after they were married, Mae’s mother arrived at the front door of Dick’s house with nothing but the clothes on her back. It was unclear to Dick just how his now mother-in-law made it from Oklahoma City to Muskogee, much less how she got a visa and ticket for the international flight from China. It was clear that any pretense of being married, much less being a couple, had ended. Sex was over between them; Mae recoiled when Dick even touch her shoulder to say good morning. She moved out of his bed room on the second floor and into the only guestroom to share a bed with Mae’s mother, next to Nell’s room.
Nell seemed to gloat at Dick in light of Mae’s abrupt change of face. When Nell demanded to move to her maternal grandmother’s house, Dick filed to divorce Mae, realizing that he would not lose the love of his daughter, particularly for someone that turned out to be a cold stranger, possibly an enemy, living under the same roof.
The local Sherriff, Dwain Westcroft, served the papers to Mae in the kitchen, while Dick waited in the living room. Once she realized what was happening, Mae went into a rage, tore past the Sheriff and attached Dick with every bit of strength and venom that she could muster. She gave him a black eye and gouged his check, which required ten stitches at the emergency room. The Sheriff arrested Mae and released her the same day; but by the time she made it back to Dick’s house, all her things were sitting on the front sidewalk. Dick never saw Mae’s mother that day, and never found any of her things in his house.
On the advice of a co-worker, Dick went to the court house the next day and filed for a victim protective order to keep Mae out of the house. Testimony from the Sheriff that Mae had threatened to kill Dick clinched the judges’ approval of the order, although Mae had not actually made any such verbal threats. It also helped that the Judge’s granddaughter was Nell’s classmate. Dick did not sleep well the first week, but after a week he became more relaxed and Nell moved back home.
Nell brought a framed black and white photograph of her mother, Jane, that Nell’s grandmother had given her. The photo showed Jane in her traditional Cherokee dance gown with ceremonial knife. Dick’s eyes swelled when he saw it. He hugged Nell, and suggested that they place Jane’s photograph on the buffet where Mae had placed the photos and incense to her family, which were now long gone.
“We miss you, mommy,” said Nell.
Dick squeezed Nell and said “We miss you, Jane,” said Dick.
That first night that Nell had returned home, Dick woke to a noise in the hallway, a loose board that always creaked when someone stepped on it. The door to Dick’s bedroom was slightly ajar.
“Nell?” said Dick.
Dick’s room was dark, save some moonlight dancing through the drapes across the door to the hallway.
The door crashed open. Dick rolled out of bed just as the sound of gunfire filled his bedroom. He blindly rushed at the source of the bullets, a dark figure at the entrance to his room, and kicked it backwards onto the hallway floor. Nell turned on the hallway light, just as Mae was getting up from the floor with the gun.
Mae grabbed Nell and held the gun to the girl’s head. Mae smiled at Dick, tears rolling down her checks. “Say ‘good-bye’,” said Mae.
“No, no, no, don’t!” said Dick. “I’ll give you anything.”
“How about your soul,” said Mae, cocking her head to one side.
“Freeze!” said a man from the top of the stairs behind Mae.
Mae spun around, trying to keep ahold on Nell, who broke free and darted back into her room from the hallway. Mae fired several rounds toward the voice at the top of the stairs, from where gun fire was returned.
A bullet hit Nell in the leg. Dick tackled her from behind and landed several punches into her face that put her unconscious.
Sheriff Westcroft was laying on his back, struggling for breath at the top of the stairs, holding his hand over his bleeding chest. Dick took the gun from Mae’s limp hand, and went to the Sheriff to help him stop the bleeding.
The Sheriff died at the hospital that night, but not before giving a sworn statement. By chance, the Sheriff had seen Mae walking alone through town and followed her to Dick’s house. When he saw her enter a side door, he had followed.
Mae was treated at the hospital and released into the custody of the county jail.
A Pittsburg County jury convicted Mae of murder and the Judge sentenced her to death by lethal injection. Fifteen months later, Mae’s execution was scheduled for a Tuesday. The day before, an ice storm hit Pittsburg County. Dick had pre-arranged to pick up Nell thirty minutes early from school to try to avoid any media who may be there to take photographs of her.
Dick’s grip on the steering wheel tightened as her heard the public radio announcer continue with local events. Mae had been put to death at the prison early Tuesday morning. Only prison officials were present. Mae had declined any final consult with a priest. Dick wondered what had become of Mae’s mother.
The principal accompanied Nell to the front entrance of the school and waived to Dick as he patted Nell on the shoulder, indicating for her to go on to her father’s vehicle. Dick waived back as he opened the car door for Nell.
Dick arranged for Nell to stay with her mother’s grandparents that night. He anticipated that it would be hard day for him and did not want Nell to be around his depression. He just wanted to have a beer and to be alone.
After dropping Nell off, Dick stopped at a local Mexican diner for a burrito and margarita, which was not the usual for Dick. He picked up a six pack of beer at a local Pit Stop on the way home. It was already dark when he slid in his house key in the side door, leaving his SUV in the driveway.
He put the beer in the refrigerator, still in its paper sack, and starred at it for a moment, then shut the door. He leaned back against the kitchen countertop and cried with his eyes squint shut. He tried to gather himself, whipping away his tears and looked up to find the picture of Jane on the buffet.
He went to the photograph and picked it up.
“I miss you so much,” Jane. “I love you. I’m so sorry. If you can hear me, I’m sorry.”
He checked the drawer under the buffet. A small candle and book of matches were the only things left in the drawer. Dick lit the candle and placed it in front of Jane’s photo.
He leaned against the buffet, breathed in deeply and searched his mind for something meaningful to say. “Keep us safe, sweety,” he said, the only thing he could think of.
He shrugged, grabbed a beer from the refrigerator, and turned on the local nightly news in the living room, settling into his Lazy-boy recliner. The blond anchorwoman was wrapping up a story about a house fire in Muskogee that had been caused by space heaters. Dick took a deep swig from his beer and propped up his feet with the fold out foot rest.
The newswoman went on with “breaking news” from the McAlester prison. Following the execution of Mae, her body had apparently gone missing. Executed bodies are normally stowed in the prison’s own morge prior to cremation. A doctor checks the condemned prisoner for any signs of life before the body is stored, after which they are promptly cremated, but not before another inspection by a nurse. The lock to the morge was cut and Mae’s body had apparently been taken shortly after it was moved to the morge.
Dick heard a creaking sound upstairs. He muted the television and took another sip of beer, as if any casual activity confirmed that there was nothing to worry about. But his heart raced. He stopped breathing and sat still, listening. He heard another sound; it was the floorboard in the hallway upstairs. He slowly set the beer down on a side table; someone had to be upstairs for that board to make a sound. The weight of an adult was required; Nell was not yet big enough. The sound came again, and he thought of his gun, which was in his closet upstairs and of no use to him now.
As Dick quietly lowered his feet to the ground, he smelled a strong odor of incense coming from the stairs. This is impossible, he told himself. He quickly stood and went to the foyer of his house to get a view of the bottom of the stairwell, believing that his sudden loud movements would break the spell of fear his mind was playing and end his apparent illusions.
Mae was standing at the bottom of the stairs holding a kitchen knife. Her skin was white and lifeless. A sheet of thin grey smoke billowed down over her head and body, and disappated once it reached the floor. She smiled at Dick, her head cocked to one side.
“Bullshit!” said Dick, trying to deny the image standing before him.
Mae lunged at him with the knife. Dick dodged to the left, and rushed to the kitchen. He circuled back through an adjoining hallway, made it back to the bottom of the stairs and ran upwards, thinking of the gun in his closet. He heard rapid footsteps behind him. As he glanced behind, reaching the top of the stairs, he was stabbed in the gut from the front.
Dick fell to the upstairs hallway floor, Mae’s mother standing over him. She held a small pearing knife, dripping with his blood. Dick glanced to a small side table in the hallway. Several of Mae’s family photographs had been placed there, including a prominent photograph of Mae, with three sticks of incense burning brightly. A thick layer of smoke floated through the hallway.
With the knife held high, ready to land another blow, Mae’s mother knelt down over him as Mae reached the top of the stairs.
Dick held his forearm up and said, “Help me!”
Mae cocked her head to one side and smiled.
As Mae’s mother began to swing her hand, someone grabbed her arm and threw her against the wall. Jane stood over Mae’s mother, dressed in her Cherokee gown, her ceremonial knife held over her head. As Mae’s mother yelled and struggled to stand, Jane’s burying her knife deep into the crook of the mother’s neck. Mae’s mother fell back against the hallway floor where she lay motionless.
Jane looked up at Mae, who stared back, stunned. Mae held up her knife, her grey hands shaking. Jane slowly sheathed her knife and smiled at Mae, cocking her head to the side.
“No!” said Mae.
Jane quickly stepped to the hallway table, and knocked the photographs and incense to the floor. Mae hollered as the layer of smoke over her body dissipated from her head, leaving nothing behind as the pillar of smoke fell to the floor.
Dick sat up on one elbow, holding his stomach with the other arm. Jane turned to him and smiled.
“I love you,” said Dick. He started to cry.
Jane nodded and blew him a kiss with her hand, as her image slowly faded, except for one Eagle feather from her headdress, which fell slowly to the floor.
Dick was treated at the hospital and released early the next morning. The police concluded that he had killed Mae in self-defense; he did not tell the police about seeing Mae. The police assumed the other kitchen knife found at the top of the stairs had been used by Dick, and did not test it. They figured that Mae’s mother must have stolen Mae’s corpse, although the body was never found.
Dick never told Nell about these latest events. When he went to pick up Nell from her grandparent’s house, Dick gave the Eagle feather to Jane’s mother, who shed a tear and nodded to Dick with a smile.
Dick kept a candle burning in front of Jane’s photograph on the kitchen buffet from then on.

Arrived at Omnibus [?] Camp and got our bearings, partly. After eating downtown the Blairs [?] and Mother left and we went to a meeting at North Hall. Dr. Goldsmith raved as did a few others about the trip and that was all. After so many difficulties we returned but not to sleep a great deal. Rain.

Took excursion on my first boat 20 miles up the Mississippi about 9 o’clock. About 40 went. The boat was “Island Maid” and had four decks with a dance hall and every thing for your pleasure. Arrived back in camp at 12:00.

Trips to Clarence Saunders’ home, however, he never lived in it and it is now a museum for the City of Memphis. It is called the “Pink Palace” and is constructed of Georgia marble. It has 32 rooms, little theatre and every imaginable convenience. Clarence Saunders’ present home is eight miles from the city and is built of natural logs and Arkansas stone. The grounds have lakes, gardens, golf courses, stables, club houses, etc.

Clarence Saunders (August 9, 1881 – October 14, 1953) was an Americangrocer who first developed the modern retail sales model of self service. His ideas have had a massive influence on the development of the modern supermarket. Clarence Saunders worked for most of his life trying to develop a truly automated store, developing Piggly Wiggly, Keedoozle, and Foodelectric store concepts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Saunders_%28grocer%29 ]

]]>http://www.mimbrez.net/?feed=rss2&p=262Do Not Join the Disney DVD Movie Clubhttp://www.mimbrez.net/?p=22
Thu, 16 Aug 2012 04:34:53 +0000http://www.mimbrez.net/?p=22Let’s get right to the point for you busy parents:

Do not joint the Disney DVD movie club because you will not be able to buy all the standard Disney Movies. That’s right. Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio, Snow White, Cinderella, etc. You cannot buy them because they are “unavailable.” Disney has resorted to a sort of bait-and-switch: you sign up for Disney DVD’s to make it easy, but learn that you cannot buy the movies that are literally synonymous with Disney.

Then you realize too late (because you didn’t read the fine print before signing up quickly on line) that each movie will cost you AT LEAST 19.95, plus shipping, meaning you could pay well over $100.00 for the five extra movies that you must purchase to fulfill your “contract.”

Don’t waste your time. Just buy the DVD’s one at a time on ebay. You’ll save a lot of money.

]]>“Personhood” Movement – An Abortion for Corporationshttp://www.mimbrez.net/?p=19
Mon, 07 Nov 2011 04:45:19 +0000http://www.mimbrez.net/?p=19According to on-line reports, Initiative 26 in Mississippi would define personhood as “every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof.” Anti-abortion activists seem to believe that it will “open the door” to overturning Row v. Wade. If passed, such a rule of law may have the unintended effect of being the bane of corporations and their supposed right to donate unlimited money to political candidates.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour offered his support for the Initiative, although he believed it was “too ambiguous.” You can bet that it’s his special interest, corporations, that are concerned. If a “person” is a fertilized egg, then a corporation certainly is not a person, and therefore, arguably should not be allowed rights under the U.S. Constitution. Republican politicians who answer to special interest corporations are now ironically placed in a difficult position. Republicans have used abortion for decades as a wedge issue to garner support from middle-class conservatives. Once they gain power, however, they serve the rich, keeping taxes low for the mega rich, while placating the middle class with social issues like abortion. But now, true-believer-conservative-Republicans are effectively turning the issue of abortion against the special interest. If a person is a fertilized egg, then a corporation is not protected. The hesitancy of Gov. Barbour will be exposed once he and others like him slowly begin to move to “clarify” the supposed ‘ambiguity’ in “personhood” laws. If he and others of his ilk seek to clarify that “organizations” or companies are not covered, it will merely confirm where their true loyalties lay.